Our Rotary Youth Exchange student, Fareeha, had the opportunity to attend Saturday’s 28-14 Pacific football victory over Puget Sound. She watched from the field with Rotarians Jenny Coyle (left) and Andrea Stewart.

If you did not make it to our last Rotary Club of Forest Grove meeting, here is what you missed…

This Week – At Forest Grove UCC: This week’s meeting, and all of our meetings during the month of October, will be held at the Forest Grove United Church of Christ, 2032 College Way (across the street from Pacific University). Join us as we hear from Chris Regilski from the U.S. Department of Reclamation.

Road Cleanup – Oct. 14: Mark your calendars for Saturday, Oct. 14 for our semi-annual road cleanup service project. The project will begin at 8:30 a.m. at the Oregon Department of Forestry offices, 801 Gales Creek Road. The cleanup project involves our adopted road segments as part of Washington County’s Adopt-A-Road Program: Gales Creek Road from Thatcher Road to Forest Gale Drive and Thatcher Road from Gales Creek Road to David Hill Road.

October 14 is also Pacific University homecoming weekend! Rotarians (and friends) who participate in the cleanup will receive a general admission ticket to that day’s football game between Pacific and Lewis & Clark (kickoff at 4 p.m.). For more information or questions about the road cleanup, please contact Andrea Stewart.

Golf Tournament: Thank you to all of our members who braved the rain to participate in our annual golf tournament at the Sunset Grove Golf Course. We will receive a full report, and presentation of the prizes for the winners, by Time Schuermann at this week’s meeting.

Oktoberfest: Thank you to Rotarians Dallas Roark, Nataliah Colbert and Cole Thursam for putting together and running our carnival booth at Saturday’s Forest Grove Oktoberfest. The booth featured a rock, paper and scissors contest with entrants donating to one of three club service outreaches.

Congratulations Claudia Yakos: Our congratulations to Rotarian Claudia Yakos, who has been named the permanent executive director of the Forest Grove/Cornelius Chamber of Commerce. Claudia has played a key role in keeping the chamber operating and moving over the last year as the interim director. Thank you, Claudia, for your continued service to our community!

Congratulations Blake Timm: Our congratulations to Rotarian Blake Timm, who has been selected as the District 5100 Western Region assistant governor for the 2024-25 Rotary year. Blake succeeds fellow Forest Grove Rotarian Tom Raabe and will work with clubs in Forest Grove, Hillsboro and Beaverton. Thank you, Blake, for your continued service to Rotary!

Concours d’Elegance Committee: If you are interested in getting further involved with the Concours d’Elegance, our annual car show, the steering committee is always looking for volunteers to prepare for the show throughout the year. For more information, contact Tom Raabe at 503-704-1200 or rotarytomr@gmail.com or Geoff Johnston at 503-939-7868 or gamsma@comcast.net.

Fun Run For Family Justice Center: The Family Justice Center of Washington County, which presented to our club earlier in 2023, is holding a fundraising Run For Hope on Sunday, Oct. 8. The five-kilometer race will begin and end at Hare Field in Hillsboro. The run and walk is free of charge but donations are suggested to help the center’s charge to serve survivors of domestic violence in our community. For more information or to register, Click Here.

Past Programs: Did you miss a meeting or want to go back and check out a program again? Most of our programs since May 2020 (over 100 videos to date) are archived on our club’s YouTube page. Visit https://bit.ly/fgrotaryprograms.

Service Opportunities For Club Members
Do You Know Of Service Opportunities?: Are you aware of service opportunities in our area that our members might be interested in? We can advertise those here! This space is not limited to club-sponsored activities but to any service opportunity in the community. To promote the service activity, please send a detailed description of the project, the date and time, contact information and a link to register to Rototeller editor Blake Timm, blakertimm@gmail.com.

Friends of the Forest Grove Library Book Sale: Friends of the Forest Grove Library will be holding its semi-annual book sale from Thursday, Oct. 14 to Saturday, Oct. 16. In addition to the sale, which benefits the library, volunteers are needed to man the sale all three days. If you are interested volunteering, please email allnutt@frontier.com.

FGHS Community Food Pantry: Our club’s support for the Forest Grove High School Food Pantry continues.  Thanks to its partnership with the Oregon Food Bank, food donations are still welcome but are of less need at this time. Of need, however, are toiletries and hygiene products as well as household cleaning materials.

During the summer, the Food Pantry is open Mondays from 4-5:30 p.m. The pantry is located along Nichols Lane between the football field and the Basinski Center. Click Here for more information on the FGHS Food Pantry and on other resources for those experiencing food insecurity.

For information on the Food Pantry, please contact Brian Burke, bburke@fgsd.k12.or.us. If you wish to make a cash donation to the pantry, Click Here.

Rotary Basics
The exciting world of Rotary can be a little complicated and complex. We are highlighting some of the history and function of Rotary in this Rotary Basics section. We will also present a term from our Rotary Glossary in an attempt to demystify some of the terms and acronyms that may have you wondering. Whether a new Rotarian or a veteran to the club, we hope you will find this informative.

Rotary’s Two Official Mottoes – And A Portland Connection

Service Above Self and One Profits Most Who Serves Best, Rotary’s official mottoes, can be traced back to the early days of the organization.

In 1911, the second Rotary convention, in Portland, Oregon, approved “He Profits Most Who Serves Best” as the Rotary motto. The wording was adapted from a speech that Rotarian Arthur Frederick Sheldon delivered to the first convention, held in Chicago the previous year. Sheldon declared that “only the science of right conduct toward others pays. Business is the science of human services. He profits most who serves his fellows best.”

The Portland gathering also inspired the motto Service Above Self. During an outing on the Columbia River, Ben Collins, president of the Rotary Club of Minneapolis, Minnesota, talked with Seattle Rotarian J.E. Pinkham about the proper way to organize a Rotary club, offering the principle his club had adopted: Service, Not Self. Pinkham invited Rotary founder Paul Harris, who also was on the trip, to join their conversation. Harris asked Collins to address the convention, and the phrase Service, Not Self was met with great enthusiasm.

At the 1950 Rotary International Convention in Detroit, Michigan, two slogans were formally approved as the official mottoes of Rotary: He Profits Most Who Serves Best and Service Above Self. The 1989 Council on Legislation established Service Above Self as the principal motto of Rotary because it best conveys the philosophy of unselfish volunteer service. He Profits Most Who Serves Best was modified to They Profit Most Who Serve Best in 2004 and to its current wording, One Profits Most Who Serves Best, in 2010.

More information available at Rotary.org.

From The Rotary Glossary
Zone: A zone is an administrative unit of Rotary made up various districts. There are currently 34 zones in Rotary, each with approximately the same number of Rotarians. District 5100 is part of Zone 27, which comprises 13 districts in Oregon, Washington, northern California, northern Nevada, Idaho, Utah, Montana, Wyoming, northern Colorado and British Columbia.

Programming and administration for Zone 27 is combined with Zone 26, which includes most of the remaining districts in the western United States and Hawaii.

Around District 5100
Board Leadership Training: District 5100 is offering a board leadership seminar this fall. This training is geared towards current club officers and board members but is open to any Rotarian who is interested in club or district leadership. The training is scheduled for Saturday, Oct. 21, with time and location to be determined. This three-hour long training will touch on financial stewardship, club goals, action plans, management and much more.

District 5100 Newsletter: Click Here To View The Monthly District 5100 Newsletter

Around Rotary International
We Are Family – Rotary Youth Exchange (originally published in Rotary magazine): Regina Alesi loves to travel. So when a classmate told her about her experience with Rotary Youth Exchange, the teenager knew she wanted to take a journey of her own. Alesi left her Argentine hometown of San Nicolás de los Arroyos in January through the program to explore Brazil, dive into its culture, and grow as a leader. “This experience has made me more independent and flexible to adapt to new things and different scenarios,” she says.

Rotary Youth Exchange has been promoting international understanding for nearly 50 years, and today Rotary clubs host exchanges in more than 100 countries. The program offers teenagers ages 15-19 an opportunity to make new friends and learn new ways of living, to open themselves to different ideas and experiences, and to adapt and gain fresh perspectives.

The exchanges offer the same to the host families. “Living with our exchange student gave my family the opportunity to get to know a new culture, traditions, and practices,” says Ivone Pinheiro de Souza Silva, a host mom. “The doors of my house will always be open for exchange students.”

Alesi is one of thousands of students who participated in Rotary Youth Exchange last year. On the following pages, you’ll also meet Ava Minocherhomji and George French, two other exchange students, and learn more about their exciting year in Brazil.

Visit Rotary.org or read the November 2023 edition of Rotary magazine to view the full photo essay.

Club Calendar
Wed., Oct. 4: Weekly Meeting, Noon
Forest Grove United Church of Christ, 2032 College Way
Program: Chris Regilski, U.S. Bureau of Reclamation

Wed., Oct. 11: Weekly Meeting, Noon
Forest Grove United Church of Christ, 2032 College Way
Program: Riley Stewart, RYLA

Thurs., Oct. 12: Executive Board Meeting, 7 p.m.
via Zoom

Wed., Oct. 18: Weekly Meeting, Noon
Forest Grove United Church of Christ, 2032 College Way
Program: Club Assembly/Youth Citizens of the Month

Thurs., Oct. 19: Board Meeting, 7 a.m.
via Zoom

Wed., Oct. 25: Weekly Meeting, Noon
Forest Grove United Church of Christ, 2032 College Way
Program: Blue Barbour-Weiss, Rotary Youth Exchange Year In Ecuador